Bulletin Boards for Spring

Are you ready for spring? The flowers are starting to bloom, farmer’s markets are opening back up, and people are getting outside more.

Bring the freshness of spring into your office, classroom, or cafeteria with a new bulletin board display. It’s an easy way to brighten up any space, while also teaching positive, memorable healthy eating messages.

We have a full collection of bulletin board materials. Here are some of my favorites for spring:

  1. The Art of Health bulletin board banner with handouts reminds you to slow down and really look at the visual appeal and beauty of healthy food. After all, you eat with your eyes first, right?
  2. The MyPlate bulletin board kit for adults or kids gets back to basics by showing you how to make a healthy plate for every meal.
  3. The Spring Season bulletin board banner reminds you to head to the farmer’s market to try all the spring fruits and veggies that are being harvested in your area.
  4. The Focus on Fruits bulletin board kit shows off brightly colored fruits and teaches serving sizes for fresh fruit, dried fruit, and fruit juice. The kit comes with handouts on how to make a smoothie, fruit and yogurt snack recipes, and how to make a watermelon cake.
  5. The Vary Your Veggies bulletin board kit advertises a bounty of beautiful vegetables while also teaching serving sizes. Handouts include how to steam veggies, a garden salad recipe, and a winter soup recipe.

No matter how you decide to brighten up your space, you can’t go wrong with the colors of spring!

Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

Spice it Up with Salsa

May is National Salsa Month! Have some fun promoting this fresh, healthy food that’s versatile, easy to make, and loved by kids and adults.

Our Salsa Wellness Fair Kit has everything you need to celebrate Salsa Month in the office, cafeteria, classroom, farmer’s market, or other location:

  • Poster: Dance with Your Veggies They are Great at the Salsa
  • Mylar balloons: happy cartoon green pepper, tomato, and carrot
  • Copy-ready handouts
  • Guide for wellness fair setup and activities
  • Instructions for making an eye-catching salsa bulletin board

Here are some other ways to celebrate salsa any time of year:

  • Hold a virtual or in-person cooking demo showing how to prepare several types of salsa
  • Invite social media friends and followers to make their favorite salsa and post a picture
  • Challenge your students to create their own salsa using a special ingredient, like pineapple, beans, or avocado
  • Talk about ways to increase the heat by using different peppers
  • Ask a salsa dance teacher to come in to teach some moves
  • Remind everyone that salsa goes with more than just chips – explore fresh veggies to dip into salsa as well as entrees and side dishes that are enhanced by salsa
  • Make a salsa bulletin board with recipes people can take with them

And don’t forget the salsa music! Make a playlist and use your phone, laptop, or iPad.

By Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

5 Ways to Brighten Up Your Space

Look around your office, classroom, or cafeteria … do you see drab walls with outdated posters? Or do you see vibrant colors and positive messages? 

It might be time to brighten up your space. We have everything you need, and posters are just the beginning!

  1. Floor decals are a unique way to add some color and nutrition messages where people will be surprised to see them. 
  2. Walloons are balloon-shaped wall decals and they come in sets. 
  3. Salad bar and table top signs are appropriate for school and workplace cafeterias, plus they’re portable so you can take them to health fairs as well.
  4. Bulletin board kits give you a big bang for your buck. Posters, photos, and handouts make beautiful bulletin board displays with little work on your part.
    • With the Four Seasons poster value set, all you have to do is change the display every season and use the accompanying handouts, which include recipes, seasonal shopping lists, and seasonal fitness activities.
    • Or promote MyPlate with kits for adults and kids. Both kits come with beautiful color photos of healthy foods. 
  5. Posters are tried and true. And our posters are NOT boring. A few favorites:

Happy decorating!

Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

 

What’s on Your Fork?

Are you looking for an easy (and educational) way to brighten up a classroom, hallway, office, or cafeteria? Check out our What’s On Your Fork poster, bulletin board banner, and wall decals. They feature beautiful, professional photographs of real, healthy food on a black background – these really stand out!

There are so many fun things you can do with the What’s on Your Fork theme. Here are just a few ideas:

  1. What’s on Your Fork display: Start with our banner or poster, or make your own visual materials with pictures of fruits, vegetables, healthy protein sources, and whole grains. Leave space for people to add pictures of what’s on their own forks.
    • Kids can cut out pictures of healthy food from magazines or supermarket flyers, tape them to plastic forks, and create their own display.
  2. What’s on Your Fork selfies: Encourage people to snap a picture when they’re eating healthy food (if it’s on a fork, that’s fun; if not, that’s fine too!). They can share it on social media (#WhatsOnYourFork), share it with a friend, or keep it private.
  3. What’s on Your Fork with food groups: Let clients decide which food group they want to focus on and have them take pictures of what’s on their fork for one day, three days, or a week. Someone who needs to eat more vegetables would take a picture whenever there’s a veggie on their fork (or spoon, or plate, or bowl!). Do the same for fruits, whole grains, and lean protein.
  4. What’s on Your Fork sugar control: People might say they’re going to limit themselves to 1-2 treats a week, but “forget” when they walk by a candy dish or are offered a piece of birthday cake. Have them snap a picture when they eat a sweet treat (on or off a fork!) and keep it on their phone. Then every time they’re tempted by something sugary, they check their phone to see the last time they had one.

Displays for High School

It’s been a while since I shared a reader request in this space, so today let’s talk high school.

Sucu reached out to me recently, and here’s what she wanted to know…

Hello: Do you have any resources or suggestions for a nutrition message for a high school bulletin board you can share asap. Thanks.
Healthy Regards,
Sucu

What fun!

I initially pointed Sucu to a few things we’d already made. There’s a fantastic high school poster set in the store, and a whole 12 lessons for teens program that is chock-full of display ideas for a bulletin board. My team and I have been polishing a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) collection that could come in handy too.

But then I thought I’d get more specific.

So, here’s a how-to for two different bulletin board displays for high schools.

Display #1: Skip Sugary Drinks

Teens are drinking a lot of sugary drinks these days, and that can be bad news for their health, both in terms of displacing more nutritious calories and adding excess empty calories to their eating patterns. To help educate teens about what they’re drinking, start with a bright, eye-catching poster that can make up the center of your display. This Are You Drinking Candy? poster is a particularly compelling one, and Beverage Better and Sugar Math are two other good choices, so go with whatever best fits your aesthetic.

From there, take a look at the sodas, energy drinks, and sport beverages that are available at school. Take photos of the Nutrition Facts labels on each one if you can, or print off some labels for equivalent products and highlight the sugar content of each one, along with the serving size. Scatter these images around the poster. You could also measure out the equivalent amount of sugar into these great test tubes and attach the tubes to the board near photos of each drink and its Nutrition Facts.

Fill in the remaining space with more information about the impact of sugary drinks on health. This tearpad has great handouts, and this blog post about energy drinks comes with a free printable handout that would be a good fit for this theme too.

Take a look at our collection of prizes for other resources to make your bulletin board display as engaging and memorable as possible.

Display #2: Nutrition Facts Panel

The Nutrition Facts label is changing, and there’s no reason for teens to stay in the dark. To help them learn what they need to know to use this resource to improve their eating patterns, put together a Nutrition Facts bulletin board!

You can pull a lot of inspiration from the New Nutrition Facts Label Display post that we put together in the spring of 2016.

Combine this Nutrition Facts Poster with a Food Label Handout to center your bulletin board display. Or, if you have more space, this 48-inch by 36-inch Nutrition Label Vinyl Banner would be a great way to draw people over to your display. Add a few different Nutrition Facts labels to the bulletin board, highlighting elements that are either good or bad for the kids’ health (perhaps color-coding would come in handy). Highlight only one or two aspects of each label so that they don’t get overwhelming.

Finish off the board with a few Nutrition Facts Stickers and Nutrition Facts Bookmarks to fill any empty spaces.

I hope this comes in handy for you! Keep those requests coming!

 

Display of the Month: New Food Label

It’s time for another display of the month, and this one is all about the new format of the Nutrition Facts label. Did you know that these new labels are already hitting stores? Help your clients use the new food labels to improve their eating patterns by inspiring them with this great display…

The Materials:

The Activities:

  • The Label Says: Nutrition Facts Label Game
  • Food Label Comparison: What a Difference a Label Makes

The Display:

Instead of setting up a tabletop display as we’ve done in the past, this month’s display can be arranged on a bulletin board or a spare space on any wall. If you’d like to adapt it to a tabletop display, you absolutely can, and you’ll probably need a few of these fabulous Tabletop Easels to ease the transition.

Anyway, make either or both of the New Food Label Posters or Food Label Math Posters the center of your display (if you have more room, you can also use the 48-inch by 36-inch Nutrition Facts Banner). Surround your poster or banner with stickers and bookmarks so that the whole display looks like a sunburst with the posters or banner in the middle.

Either tear off a few handouts from the Nutrition Facts Tearpad or mount the whole thing to the wall just to the right of your sunbursts so that interested parties can take a sheet home for themselves. Balance the handouts on the other side with the 26-inch by 62-inch Food Label Banner and Stand. Arrange the Nutrition Facts Floor Sticker in front of your display for an extra-intriguing draw to your information, then step back and admire the view.

Activity Leader Guide:

To play The Label Says: Nutrition Facts Label Game, you’ll need a projector, a screen, and a copy of the The Label Says: Nutrition Facts Label PowerPoint presentation. Everything else you need is built into the presentation itself, so as long as you review it before you start presenting, you’ll simply need to turn it on and work your way through the slides. In this game, participants will evaluate a food based on information from its Nutrition Facts label, learning common label-reading mistakes and exploring healthful eating pattern strategies along the way. The I Know How to Read a Food Label Stickers and New Food Label Bookmarks make great prizes and incentives!

For the second activity, Food Label Comparison: What a Difference a Label Makes, you’ll need to do a bit more legwork. Bring in a few varieties of the same foods (3 fruit juices, 3 cans of beans, etc) that each have different Nutrition Facts. Compare across the types of foods and find the most healthful options as a group. What parts of the label were the most useful? Why? Use this activity to highlight the impact of reading a food label on health, explaining that the new Nutrition Facts label is a helpful tool for developing and maintaining a healthful eating pattern.

Other Fantastic Display Ideas:

We’ve been putting together these display posts for a while now, so there’s lots of inspiration available for a wide range of health and nutrition topics. Which ones will be the most useful for you?

Store Links:

Here’s a closer look at some of the top new food label resources that my team and I have created…

Bulletin Board Idea for Spring

Spring is kicking into high gear, and what better time is there to put together a bright seasonal bulletin board with helpful health messages?

I created this Spring Bulletin Board Banner to highlight key foods that make their debut in the spring, and as I was looking at it the other day, I decided to outline how to use it to anchor a bulletin board display!

Here are the details…

Put the Spring Bulletin Board Banner in the upper right hand corner of your bulletin board area. Print out the recipe for the healthy spring dinner plate featured on the poster and arrange it next to your banner. Note that this recipe is only available to Food and Health members, so if you haven’t already signed up, take a look at the benefits of membership today!

If you have room for another handout, print out the free PDF that accompanies the Spring Bulletin Board Banner and arrange it on your board too.

Fill the remaining space with images of healthful spring produce. You can print these from the internet, cut them out of magazines, or draw them. You could also add some fun MyPlate stickers, which coordinate well with the color scheme featured on the banner.

What kinds of displays are you making for spring?

Nutrition Month Display Ideas

It’s not too late to set up an engaging display for National Nutrition Month!

The best displays feature information in a variety of formats, presented in an eye-catching and memorable manner. Here are a few strategies that you can use to put together your best display yet…

Bulletin Board:

It’s usually a good idea to center a bulletin board around a banner or poster. For Nutrition Month, I would recommend any of the following, depending on the space you have available.

Once you’ve picked a poster/banner or two to center your display, it’s just a matter of filling in the details. One way to vary the view while imparting key information is to add a few relevant handouts, like these!

You can also print out pictures that support your main point (people being active for an exercise board, healthful foods/meals for a nutrition board etc) and fill in a few gaps with assorted stickers or wall decals.

Tabletop Display:

Tabletop displays offer a better chance for interaction than a bulletin board display, but they also take up more room.

The key to a good tabletop display is having something that will draw people to the table. Banners on stands offer a great way to stand out from the crowd, and these options are perfect for Nutrition Month:

Floor stickers are also creative (and intriguing) eye-catchers here. My personal favorites include:

Then you want to fill your table with resources that will help your audience learn and remember key Nutrition Month lessons. Posters like the ones featured in the bulletin board section above are great options, and you can prop them up on a tabletop easel or two. Handouts are useful take-home resources too, as are stickers/bookmarks/other fun prizes.

If you’re talking about sugar, salt, or fat content in your display, I’d highly recommend test tubes, which you can use to display the average amount of your featured element in a variety of foods.

These materials offer a great visual way to compare and contrast different options, and the test tubes have gotten wonderful feedback in the past. In fact, they’re one of our most popular resources for health fairs!

And there you have it! A little Nutrition Month display inspiration!

For additional resources to help with your National Nutrition Month celebrations, don’t miss these amazing materials…

Great Bulletin Boards: A Breakdown

Want some insight into your next display?

We’ve studied visual engagement strategies and explored balance and composition for so long that we can’t remember a time that we weren’t immersed in the science of bulletin boards as educational tools.

Along the way, we’ve found some winning combinations that manage to make health lessons both appealing and memorable. Those lessons are what I’d like to share with you today.

Interested?

Here are 3 tried-and-true bulletin board tips…

  1. Use a poster as your guide. We’ve had the best feedback for bulletin board displays that feature a poster. This poster can bring together your core lessons and highlight the most important points of your topic. A poster also offers a way to visually balance your board, with a large image featured prominently. Our posters are also super focused, presenting only the most vital information, which further helps your bulletin board communicate key messages.
  2. Use photographsPhotographs add an air of professionalism to your board. There’s something about a good photo that makes a bulletin board appear more polished. Make sure the photos are lit well and not grainy, then put them up wherever your need a splash of color. Photos also offer a real-world demonstration of an idea, which makes them extra effective for cooking or exercise boards.
  3. Make it interactive! I love to watch people interact with a bulletin board. The process could be as simple as signing up for an upcoming activity related to the bulletin board’s theme, or as complex as finding a spot for a healthful recipe someone would like to share. Engagement dramatically increases when people feel involved with the board in some way, so devise a strategy to help people interact with your display.

After all, if a picture is worth a thousand words, just imagine what a bulletin board can do!

Like what you see? Check out the bulletin boards that we’ve created for you over at the Nutrition Education Store!

Don’t miss this free handout! It’s from one of our bulletin board kits — can you guess which one?Get Active HandoutAnd, as always, there’s more to love in the Nutrition Education Store. We’re here to help you look your very best, right now.

Nutrition Poster Value Set

Healthful Eating Display Kit

Beverage Better Banner and Stand